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<!--
 Copyright (C) 2005, 2006 Joe Walnes.
 Copyright (C) 2006, 2007, 2013 XStream committers.
 All rights reserved.
 
 The software in this package is published under the terms of the BSD
 style license a copy of which has been included with this distribution in
 the LICENSE.txt file.
 
 Created on 29. January 2005 by Joe Walnes
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    <title>How to Contribute</title>
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    <p>XStream is nothing without contributions from the user community.  There are many ways to
    contribute.  We are constantly working on the software and documentation, so it's a good
    idea to contact the team.  For normal question about usage or possible misbehavior, please contact
    us on the <a href="list-user.html">user</a> mailing list.  To discuss further development of XStream,
    you may contact us on <a href="list-dev.html">development</a> mailing lists to avoid duplicating effort.</p>

    <h2 id="help">Help</h2>
    <p>The correct place if you are looking for help is the <a href="list-user.html">user</a> mailing list.  You
    get there a much wider audience from other users and also the developers are reading and answering there
    your questions.</p>

    <h2 id="documentation">Documentation</h2>
    <p>One of the traditional weak points of open source software is the documentation.  Any
    help with this aspect of the project will be welcomed with open arms, or at the very least
    with open email clients!</p>

    <h2 id="examples">Examples</h2>
    <p>We are working on one or two examples of using XStream, but we can always do with more.</p>

    <h2 id="feature-requests">Feature Requests</h2>
    <p>We eat our own dogfood, but we're also happy to feed other people's dogs (if you'll excuse
    a stretched <span style="text-decoration:line-through">dachshund</span> metaphor!).  If you want to
    request a new feature you can either make a request through the <a href="issues.html">issue tracker</a>
    or by sending a message to the <a href="list-dev.html">development mailing list</a>.  The benefit of any
    new features will be discussed on the mailing list, so its a good idea to sign up so that you can stick your
    oar in.</p>

    <h2 id="bug-reports">Bug Reports</h2>
    <p>You can report bugs through the <a href="issues.html">issue tracker</a> interface or in case you are
    in doubt whether it is really a bug or just a wrong usage, you may ask first posting to the 
    <a href="list-user.html">user mailing list</a>.  Additional brownie points are awarded for bug reports that
    include a failing unit test.</p>

    <h2 id="patches">Bug Fixes</h2>
    <p>If you want <em>lots</em> of brownie points, send a fix along with your bug report
    and failing unit test.  Bug fixes are best sent as patches that we can apply to the
    codebase.  Remember to tell us which version the patch should be applied against, or
    we'll get very confused.  To be accepted into the codebase, patches must be released
    under the <a href="license.html">same license as XStream itself</a>.</p>

    <h2 id="new-code">New Code</h2>
    <p>If you have a new feature request, then we'll listen extra hard if you show us how it
    works.  A new feature might be best implemented as a patch to an existing class
    or as a new class.  The XStream API contains many extension points that allow new functionality
    to be integrated into the framework.  We are rather anal about testing, so if you send us
    some code without any tests we will probably ask you to write the tests tests as well
    before we add it to the codebase.</p>

    <h2 id="your-own-extension">Write Your Own XStream Extension</h2>
    <p>If you have a project that builds upon XStream we will be happy to announce your
    project on the XStream site.</p>

    <h2 id="become-committer">Become a Committer</h2>
    <p>We follow the <a href="http://www.codehaus.org/customs/manifesto.html">Codehaus manifesto</a>
    when it comes to expanding the core team.</p>

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